Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I thought I’d write a bit about our track “Zeitgeist” from our latest EP Incision, which is a song we wrote together with Preemptive Strike 0.1. We met the band online after becoming label-mates on Infacted Recordings, and the idea for a collaboration propped up and sounded like something we both wanted to do. 2010’s relentless remix schedule left us utterly jaded in that sense, so the idea of collaborating on something new instead of just re-working an existing song seemed like a much better way to connect musically. The music back & forthed as we exchanged loops, but PES0.1 came up with the main aggressive-lead synths for the first verse and chorus. Then we took it and added our signature parts, and a big Moog bassline and build-up replete with epic kick-rolls, which adds instant awesomeness to any song if you ask me.

The lyrics came quite quickly and naturally in one stream-of-consciousness minddump. I basically had one thought in my mind which was that I wanted to create a mantra for a hacker just before a run, to do something destructive to a large corporate entity for no personal benefit; just to bring the system down and level the playing field for a moment. The line “Keep your eyes level with god” refers to the dissolution of the class system we live in. It means there are no giants, no man-made gods demanding your credence, no one to be a slave to – we are all born equal and must get off our knees and become our own gods. The moment we blame our circumstances for our shortcomings we become self-imposed slaves to a man-made glass ceiling.

I’m not saying we should all go out and become cyber-terrorists, but it’s important to respect those who challenge the system, and to never be a slave.

Rusted spires / That hold the world in shadow / Signal fire / Reflects the light in glass / Running live / We ride this to the core / Reaching for the mask / Never to hold back / Form the cause / Central units rising / Force their hand / Pressure to absolve / Action is the goal / Understand it now / We know where to attack; / The zeitgeist shows the path

Fight until we have it all / Keep your eyes level with god / Burn at this rate and we fall / We fall / Rising in a new cage / Force, turn the pressure to war / Keeping our eyes level with god / Terror action until we fall / We fall / Alive to see the new wave

For a song / We sold our evolution / Keeps us down / Afraid to call the lines / Behind that wall / Colder than these eyes / We know what must be done / Our system overrun / Form the cause / Central units rising / Force their hand / Pressure to absolve / Action is the goal / Understand it now / We know where to attack; / The zeitgeist shows the path

Since the last TCE release in 2008, I've been tapping away at new TCE material and putting aside songs for a new release. When I had about 9 new TCE tracks and remixes, I decided to leave our label at the time, Advoxya Records, with plans to simply upload the EP to iTunes and release it independently. Just before I did this I sent the EP in mp3 format to Deathwatch Asia, just as a "by the way" sort of thing. Deathwatch Asia wrote back within hours with a message; "*This* is how much I like your new EP", and attached a record contract right there and then.

So since Deathwatch Asia took the release on-board, we decided to add a bunch of additional material, namely remixes by Soman, DYM and Studio-X. I also had another idea; I had been writing some music on my iPhone using a program called Nanostudio, and I thought it would be cool to turn these into "real" songs and release them on this CD. The release is a tribute to Ada Lovelace, who is cited as the world's first computer programmer and the first person to envision that computers could be used to make music. So using an iPhone to compose part of the release, which is a device viewed with the same skepticism as computers initially were in terms of making music, seemed entirely appropriate.

My singer Elenor wrote and recorded vocals over the initial Nanostudio demos. These demos were made within a few hours late at night or on the go, but had some cool ideas in them. My plan was to export the MIDI data, import that into Cubase 5, and send the data to my hardware synths and produce the songs using all the soft-samplers and mixing tricks I have available.

No soft-synths were used on this release. I used my Andromeda A6 for the "soft lead" sounds and pads, my Moog LP for the basslines and my Virus Snow for the "hard lead" sounds.

You can hear the results on the digital single "Ada Makes the Machines Sing". The 2 tracks that were made in this way are "As Long As You Need" and "Core Reaction", which are on this digital single in instrumental form.

And you can stream the first 3 tracks and pre-order the CD of the full EP, "Industrial Re-Evolution", due for release on 22 April 2011.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Today I created a Mixcloud profile and uploaded a few mixes I'd put together. I've got some more mixes in the works and the idea is to create various sets in individual styles which I'll upload when they're ready to go, so expect new minimal, techno and indie dance sets soon. A lot of it was found by trawling Beatport, and a lot of it was recommended to me by friends and then bought from Beatport. When I have a bunch of tracks ready I put them in folders labelled by style. I guess I find it very hard to not interact with music; if I listen to club music I'm going to imagine myself DJing it in order to appreciate it better. So making these mixes is my way of absorbing this music I've been collecting. I'm loathe to call myself a DJ and while I have been spinning at clubs for quite a few years, it's not something I pursue too hard. To be brutally honest, none of this music resonates with me as much as industrial, and to quote a friend of mine "we listen to every kind of music in the world, but we're really just waiting to listen to Hocico again".

The awesome thing about Mixcloud is that, as long as your mixes are labelled thoroughly and as long as the artists you play have registered with the relevant performing rights association, the artists in your sets actually get royalties based on the amount of plays, similar to royalties made by having your tracks played on radio or TV. It also gives download links in your playlists which search various digital stores, so if someone likes a track in your set (or the whole set), they can hopefully buy it. So while it's a streaming-only service, it's worth it to be above board.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Since our feature in The Dose magazine Issue #03, the crew have put together a Visual Mixtape of the best in weird and alternative party music, featuring our filmclip for "The End". Filmclips in the world of industrial are somewhat of a rarity so it's important to spread the word and make features of clips like these to keep the interest up so more filmclips get made in the future.

Incredibly excited to be able to mention that the enigmatic, inspirational and phenomenal act mind.in.a.box have been added to the Infest line-up. We will be performing just before them on the Sunday. We're also incredibly chuffed to say that Hocico will be on the line-up too. I played 2 shows with Hocico in Estonia and Latvia with my other band The Crystalline Effect in 2008, and seeing Hocico onstage was a massively energetic experience. As if you needed any more of a reason to believe this is a festival not to miss, check out the rest of the bands announced thus far here at www.infestuk.com.

Shop

Videos

Images

Network

About Shiv-r

Hard-hitting yet elegant, SHIV-R is the monstrously seductive project of Australian-born musicians Pete Crane and Ben Lee Bulig. The band forge a unique aural and visual aesthetic, creating a world of fear, aggression and self-expression to confront the shadows within ourselves. Read Bio